Music at Noon: The Logan Series
Shanghai Quartet to Perform Friday, December 1
Shangahi Quartet, a versatile ensemble known for its passionate musicality, impressive technique, and multicultural innovation, will perform at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, on Friday, Dec. 1.
Their lunchtime appearance, part of Music at Noon: The Logan Series, will begin at noon in the McGarvey Commons of the Reed Union Building. It is free and open to the public.
Hailed by The Strad magazine as “a foursome of uncommon refinement and musical distinction,” the Shanghai Quartet has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most outstanding string ensembles. Originally formed at the Shanghai Conservatory in 1983, the quartet has established a distinguished teaching record as quartet-in-residence at Montclair State University, New Jersey, by serving an annual residency at Shanghai Conservatory, and through past residencies at the Tanglewood and Ravinia music festivals.
In addition to regular performances on National Public Radio, Shanghai Quartet has appeared at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and in PBS’s Great Performers television series. Their performance collaborators include Yo-Yo Ma, David Soyer, Eugenia Zukerman, Sharon Isbin, Ruth Laredo, and Arnold Steinhardt.
Shanghai Quartet’s repertoire straddles two hemispheres: In 2002, it released ChinaSong, a 24-track collection of Chinese folk songs featuring music arranged by quartet violinist Yi-Wen Jiang based on his childhood memories of China’s Cultural Revolution. The following year it performed its “Beethoven Project: East Meets West”—the composer’s complete string quartets—in six concerts around the world, including China’s first-ever performance of the complete Beethoven quartet cycle.
On the big screen, the quartet can be seen (and heard) in last year’s Woody Allen film Melinda and Melinda, and violinist Weigang Li appeared in the Academy Award-winning documentary From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. Cellist Nicholas Tzavares and his family were portrayed in the 1999 Meryl Streep movie Music from the Heart.
Music at Noon, an innovative program to introduce classical music in an informal atmosphere rather than in an intimidating concert hall, was founded at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, in 1989 by Warren philanthropist and arts advocate Kay Logan. Its unique music outreach efforts were honored in New York City last spring with an Adventurous Programming Award given by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
The series receives major support from the Kay Logan Trust and additional funding from the Erie Arts Endowment of the Arts Council of Erie, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, the Penn State Behrend Student Activity Fee, Pennsylvania Partners on the Arts, Wal-Mart, JazzErie, and Romolo Chocolates.
For more information about The Logan Series, visit the season Web site at www.pserie.psu.edu/musicatnoon or phone the Penn State Behrend School of Humanities and Social Sciences at 814-898-6108.